News from around the world

A Florida sex offender under arrest for failing to register is now facing federal pornography charges after he offered to show a detective a flight simulator program on his laptop and instead revealed a child porn video, according to court records.

Barry Whaley, of Miami Beach, was arrested in Alaska on Monday on a federal charge of possessing child pornography and was being held in Fairbanks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Audrey Renschen said.

The case began on June 26, 2008, when Miami Beach police contacted Whaley to check his compliance as a registered sex offender, according to an affidavit that Secret Service Special Agent Timothy Aucoin filed in federal court.

Police found the apartment Whaley was registered to had been condemned following a fire on June 17, and that he had not updated his address. Police also learned Whaley had given them a fake name during the fire investigation.

Whaley was arrested on charges of obstruction of justice and failure to register. While at the police station, he asked detectives to grab his computer out of his vehicle so it wouldn’t get stolen, the affidavit says.

Once detectives brought the computer inside, Whaley told a police sergeant there was a “flight simulator program on the computer that was amazing,” Aucoin says in the court papers.

“The sergeant asked if he could see the program,” he continues. “Whaley agreed and began to show the sergeant the laptop. As the sergeant was sitting next to Whaley, a video began to play on the laptop of two young females who appeared to be under 12 years old engaged in sexual activity.”

The computer was seized and found to contain a number of pornographic pictures and videos of girls as young as 10, the affidavit says.

After his arrest on the Florida charges, Whaley posted bail, then came to Alaska, the affidavit says. Renschen said the case can be handled in Alaska only if Florida officials consent and Whaley is willing to plead guilty and be sentenced here.

“At this point, Mr. Whaley is considering his options, with the help of his attorney, so it is unclear where the case will be resolved,” she said.

A 45-year-old registered sex offender has been arrested on suspicion of attempted first-degree child molestation after an 11-year-old girl said the man molested her at church functions at the Church of the Nazarene in Yelm, according to the Yelm Police Department.

Daniel Holdren, 45, was being held at the Thurston County Jail on Monday night on suspicion of three counts of attempted first-degree child molestation pending a “safe-to-be-at-large” evaluation. During such an evaluation, a health care professional interviews a defendant to determine any public safety concerns if that defendant were to be released from custody.

Stancil said anyone with additional information should contact the Yelm Police Department at 360-458-5701.

Holdren has been classified as a Level 2 sex offender since 1988, when he was charged with indecent liberties, and later in 2003 when he was charged with communication with a minor for immoral purposes, according to Yelm police. Holdren has been on supervised probation since that time.

Holdren didn’t work at the Church of the Nazarene but attended services there, Stancil said. Stancil said the alleged molestation occurred at events such as dinners and other church functions, and occurred in the area of the church itself.

Stancil said there was nothing in Holdren’s probationary requirements that would prevent him from having contact with children at the church.

Stancil said Holdren engaged in “grooming” behaviors at the church, giving potential victims gifts and other items to gain their trust.

A man who answered the phone at the Church of the Nazarene hung up when contacted by The Olympian on Monday.

A registered sex offender won’t be handing out candy on Halloween anytime soon.

During a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Steven Bauer ordered that Edward Lieber, as part of his sentence, never put up a Halloween display or pass out candy or gifts to children.

Lieber, 35, was found guilty on three felony counts of intentionally photographing a minor without consent as a registered sex offender.

The Waupun Police Department was contacted by three Waupun parents in regard to Lieber taking pictures of their young children, ages 2, 3 and 4, while they were trick-or-treating at his Madison Street home last Halloween.

A woman told police that the children entered a “Halloween-type structure” where Lieber was sitting inside with a camera.

Witnesses said that as the children entered the structure, Lieber followed them and proceeded to take pictures of the children without asking permission, according to the criminal complaint.

Lieber is listed on the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Fairwater girl in 1993, according to the criminal complaint.

Lieber told police that he took approximately five to six photographs that were intended for his father, according to the complaint.

Bauer also ordered Lieber to serve 60 days in the Dodge County Jail followed by two years of probation.

A Massachusetts registered sex offender was found guilty of loitering and interference with custody after he was found with a teenage boy in a Salem parking lot.

Rodney Martineau, 42, was found in a Main Street parking lot on Jan. 13 with a 15-year-old boy from Methuen, Mass., police said. The boy had snuck out of his home without his parents’ knowledge, police said.

Investigators said they learned that Martineau was communicating with the boy on his computer and set up a meeting. The boy was taken into protective custody and released to his parents.

An officer took the boy aside and began questioning him. He said the boy told them that he had been chatting online with Martineau and snuck out of his home in Methuen, Mass., to go with him. Police said that while the boy went willingly, he was beginning to have second thoughts. “The male subject told him he was 27 years old, not 42,” Patten said. “The boy also told us that he was scared and started looking at street signs. He had snuck out of his house to meet the man, and the man had driven him up to Salem, N.H.”

Martineau was eventually taken into custody and charged with loitering and interference with custody. He was found guilty Tuesday, and the case was referred to probation for a pre-sentence investigation.

Salem police said they forwarded the investigation to Methuen police because Martineau allegedly contacted the boy there.

McNeely is accused of abusing a girl at his home. Police said they were called Monday to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center by Forsyth County Department of Social Services workers, who reported that the girl had been abused.

Police McNeely is an acquaintance of the girl’s family. He was convicted in 1992 in Catawba County of indecent liberties with a minor, and released in 1998, after serving six years in prison.

Before coming to Arizona, Rodreick was convicted in Oklahoma of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy in 1996. He served about six years in prison.

A youthful-looking sex offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in several Arizona schools was sentenced Tuesday to more than 70 1/2 years in prison.

Neil Havens Rodreick II pleaded guilty last year to seven criminal charges. Most involved child pornography, but two stemmed from the charade he pulled off for two years.

Rodreick, 31, didn’t speak at his sentencing, shaking his head when Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Thomas Lindberg asked if he had anything to say.

Lindberg called Rodreick a fixated pedophile and said he should have received an even longer sentence.

“I find your conduct appalling — these were volitional choices you made, consistently deceitful, dishonest, manipulative,” the judge told Rodreick. “I think you represent a danger to the community; you in particular are dangerous to children.”

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said her office was pleased with the sentence, noting Rodreick will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“This case involved some dangerous sexual predators and they are now off the streets of Yavapai County,” she said.

Rodreick attended schools in Surprise, Payson and Prescott Valley starting in 2005. Authorities said he shaved and wore makeup to help him appear younger, convincing teachers, students and administrators that he was a boy named Casey.

He was caught in January 2007 after spending a day in the seventh grade at a Chino Valley school when school officials became suspicious because his birth certificate and other documents looked forged. They had initially thought they might be dealing with a child who had been abducted.

Authorities didn’t find any victims of sexual abuse at the schools Rodreick attended, but they found an extensive collection of child pornography at his home.

Rodreick originally faced 28 counts but pleaded guilty to only a quarter of them: four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from the pornography, and one count each of failure to register as a sex offender, fraud and simple assault. The assault charge involved an allegation that he grabbed a girl’s buttocks at a school in Prescott Valley with the intent to injure, insult or provoke.

Rodreick was arrested with Brian J. Nellis, 36, who was posing as his cousin, and two older men posing as their uncle and grandfather.

Authorities said Robert James Snow, 46, and Lonnie Eugene Stiffler, 63, met Rodreick online, thinking he was a pre-teen, took him from Oklahoma to Arizona and carried on a sexual relationship with him.

Nellis, Stiffler and Snow were indicted on various charges, including child pornography and forgery. Nellis and Snow, both convicted sex offenders, also were charged with failing to register with authorities.

Stiffler was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison, and Snow received 22 years. Nellis was sentenced last month to 51 years in prison with no chance of parole.

Before coming to Arizona, Rodreick was convicted in Oklahoma of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy in 1996. He served about six years in prison.

A woman got an alarming wake up when she got out of bed to find a registered sex offender in her living room.

When Kathryn Gonzalez discovered a man in her home, she thought, “Oh my God, I woke up just now and there’s a guy in my living room, there’s a guy in my living room!”

“Just to come out of the bathroom and have someone staring at you like that? It’s really uneasy,” Gonzalez said.

The intruder had climbed into her Granite Street home through the living room window before 6 a.m. Saturday.

“When he came to me he started moving, like a vampire, he moved his arm over, I saw a box cutter,” Gonzalez described.

She screamed to her boyfriend who was asleep in the bedroom.

The man ran out of the house, and Gonzalez called 911.

While she was on the phone with police, she noticed the man outside looking at her through the window.

“I have no idea why but he came back telling me he meant no harm by it. How can you mean no harm by breaking into somebody’s house and attacking their girl with a knife?” her boyfriend said.

Just when he came back, officers arrived.

They arrested the man, 40-year-old David Dunbar, who is a registered level three sex offender.

Dunbar also happened to be the boyfriend’s co-worker at Labor Ready.

He has been convicted of past crimes including two counts of indecent assault or battery on a child under fourteen-years-old. He was also arrested in 2007, accused of breaking into a woman’s home and trying to rape her.

He now faces a set of charges that Kathryn Gonzalez hopes will put him behind bars for good, “I want him to go away, he needs to go to jail. He needs to learn his lesson, you just don’t come here and scare people.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation captured a registered sex offender just hours after adding him to their “Most Wanted List.”

Lonnie Calvin Storie, 55, of Byrdstown was captured at the Nashville Cold Storage loading his tractor trailor. He was discovered hiding in the back of the rig. Storie said he was leaving for Wisconsin.

Storie was wanted by the Pickett County Sheriff’s Office for attacking and sexually assaulting a woman in his home. Investigators said he also threatened to kill her.

He was convicted of sexual battery in 1994 and rape in 1995. His criminal history includes reckless endangerment, evading arrest, and driving under the influence.

A SEX offender might never leave jail again after he subjected a 78-year-old widow to a three-hour late-night rape ordeal in her home.

Craig Potterton, 23, half-strangled the York pensioner, threatened to kill her and ignored her repeated demands to leave her sheltered accommodation after knocking on her door at midnight last September, Christine Egerton, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told York Crown Court.

He was on parole at the time from a lengthy jail sentence for robbing a fellow hostel resident and also had previous sex convictions.

He eventually left after 3am on Saturday, September 20. It was days before the victim could tell the police what had happened.

Four years before the rape, Potterton had stolen the pensioner’s jewellery and cash after she had taken pity on him when he was homeless and allowed him to stay with her for a few weeks. Giving him an indefinite sentence for public protection, the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told him: “She is a lady who has treated you with kindness in the past. What you did to her was dreadful. One can only imagine the thoughts running through that 78-year-old lady’s head. What had she done to deserve such treatment?” He called Potterton “very dangerous” and warned him that though he could apply for parole after five years, “it may well be you will be detained indefinitely.”

Detective Inspector Maria Taylor said: “I would like to pay tribute to the victim who has been through a terrifying ordeal at the hands of Potterton. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of this heinous crime, which although very rare, has a devastating effect on victims. We are pleased that a very dangerous, callous and violent individual has been taken off the streets”

Potterton will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life after he pleaded guilty to rape.

Miss Egerton said he had been released from jail to live in a Dewsbury probation hostel six weeks before the rape. But he broke his parole conditions by taking alcohol to the hostel. Fearing he would be sent back to jail, he caught a train to York. He knew the widow because a friend of hers had introduced them four years earlier.

Potterton pleaded guilty on the basis that he had gone to her home seeking a place to sleep. His barrister Nicholas Barker said he had smoked cannabis, drunk alcohol and taken Ecstasy before the rape. He had not planned the crime. He had had a disrupted childhood that left him angry and dysfunctional.

Corey Deen Saunders, the convicted sex offender who raped a boy in the New Bedford Free Public Library last year, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison by a Superior Court judge who ruled that only a lengthy jail sentence could keep Saunders from harming children.

“We now know that Saunders is not amenable to rehabilitation,” Superior Court Judge Robert J. Kane wrote in his decision, adding that “the history of Saunders’ constant abuse of children . . . and his insincerity silence any claims that Saunders will effectively control his sexual urges.”

Saunders will not be eligible for parole for at least 15 years. If he is released, he will be on probation for the rest of his life with conditions that he stay away from children and undergo sex offender treatment.

The arrest of the 27-year-old from New Bedford on charges that he raped a 6-year-old boy as the child’s mother worked on a computer feet away sparked outrage because of the nature of the crime, Saunders’s history of abuse, and his release from prison two years earlier.

He had been on probation for a previous conviction of trying to rape a 7-year-old and was supposed to stay away from children. A Superior Court judge JUDGE MOSES had released Saunders from prison after he served his four-year term in spite of prosecutors’ requests to keep him jailed, arguing he was still a danger to children. He is now serving a five-year prison sentence for violating probation for the 2001 conviction.

Saunders had admitted to court psychologists a history of molesting boys while staying in foster homes and state programs. He had a disturbed childhood, psychologists said in the court records, and a low intelligence level.

The mother of the 6-year-old boy submitted a letter to the court yesterday saying, “This incident has been very dramatic in both my son’s life and my family’s life.”

“Please understand that this man tried to take my son’s innocence away,” she said. The Globe does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

“He is a danger to children in society,” she said. “Not another child nor family should go through the pain that we have endured.”